


Beauty and the High-Functioning Sociopath

by wellthengameover



Series: Sherlock Meta [20]
Category: Beauty and the Beast - All Media Types, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beauty and the Beast, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Analysis, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Character Analysis, Episode: s01e03 The Great Game, Episode: s02e01 A Scandal in Belgravia, Episode: s02e03 The Reichenbach Fall, Episode: s03e02 The Sign of Three, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Retellings, Meta, Other, Sherlock Meta, TJLC | The Johnlock Conspiracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-05-02 17:45:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5257796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthengameover/pseuds/wellthengameover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock is a “dragon-slayer;” John is a “damsel in distress.” They couldn’t make this more obvious if they tried. Yes, this show really is that unabashedly romantic that it’s a fairytale with a prince and a knight, in this case. We recently had the hero come back to life via the power of true love. I don’t know what else you need to prove it’s a fairytale.</p><p>It’s one fairytale in particular: Beauty and the Beast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beauty and the High-Functioning Sociopath

_BBC Sherlock_ is a fairytale. It literally is.

> JIM: Every fairytale needs a good old-fashioned villain.

Sherlock is a “dragon-slayer;” John is a “damsel in distress.” They couldn’t make this more obvious if they tried. Yes, this show really is that unabashedly romantic that it’s a fairytale with a prince and a knight, in this case. We recently had the hero _come back to life via the power of true love_. I don’t know what else you need to prove it’s a fairytale.

## It’s one fairytale in particular: Beauty and the Beast.

Beauty and the Beast is about:

  * Two people who don’t fit into their society very well (and are consequently lonely and belittled) find love in each other. Character A clearly doesn’t fit into society and therefore pushes everyone away. Character B seems like they ought to fit into society on the surface but really doesn’t.
  * Character B showing Character A how to love.
  * The love between Characters A and B caused Character A to stop being a Beast and become human.



Sound familiar?

Here are the character parallels:

  * [the side of the angels](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105644373350)
  * [the side of the not-angels](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105644373435)
  * [the prince and the knight](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105644374042)



Back when the Beast was originally human, **he scorned sentiment**. Therefore, the Witch put a curse on him that:

  * made him a Beast
  * **made him stay a Beast forever if he couldn’t find true love** by a set deadline
  * made it harder to find true love (because people were now afraid of the way he looked)



_This is exactly what has Jim has done to Sherlock._

**The Witch left it to chance whether or not the Beast would find true love. Jim’s not that lazy.**

_It’s not chance, Mr. Holmes, it’s chess._

Burning Sherlock’s heart out is Jim’s version of making Sherlock a Beast forever. But because people can fall in love at any age and Jim isn’t actually magic, there’s no set deadline for Sherlock to find true love - or not find true love and burn his heart out. So:

Jim wants to _make sure_ Sherlock burns his heart out. He’s a lot more hands-on than the Witch. Maybe the Witch was just doing a very bad job of trying to be helpful and get the Beast to fall in love, but Jim definitely wants the “staying a Beast forever” option, not the “true love’s first kiss” option. The Beast was a Beast, but he was sad that he was a Beast and wanted to turn back into a human. Jim wants to get to the point where the Beast (Sherlock) _doesn’t want to turn back into a human._ Has the option, and chooses not to. [He wants Sherlock to choose to burn his heart out.](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/100624299225/sherlocks-heart-hasnt-been-burnt-out-yet)

How is he going to do that? Like this:

##  [Jim is purposely setting up Sherlock and John romantically so that they can be ripped apart at the last second, just when Sherlock thinks they will finally be together, and burn Sherlock’s heart out.](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem)

So in this version of Beauty and the Beast:

The Witch discovered the one person that the Beast cares about most: Beauty. However, the Beast didn’t know he was in love with Beauty. That was TGG.

The Witch decided the best way to burn the Beast’s heart out was to have him realize he was in love with Beauty (The Promise of Love); then have Beauty leave him (The Pain of Loss); then have Beauty come back - but by then the Beast would rather stay a Beast forever (The _False_ Joy of Redemption). [So the Witch tested this plan. That was ASiB.](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem)

The Witch knew that the Beast wasn’t great with recognizing his own feelings (because he liked to pretend like he didn’t have any so he wouldn’t get hurt), so the Witch knew that the Beast wouldn’t realize he was in love with Beauty unless Beauty married someone else. Since Beauty was in love with the Beast and knew it, the Witch knew Beauty would never leave the Beast’s castle, even if they just stayed friends and nothing more. So before the Witch could put the plan to burn the Beast’s heart out into action, the Beast and Beauty had to be separated. Since Beauty wouldn’t leave the Beast, the Beast had to leave Beauty. That was TRF.

Beauty thought the Beast was dead and was very sad and lonely. The Witch sent his right-hand agent Gaston to date Beauty. That way the Witch could be sure Beauty would marry someone else and the Beast would realize his feelings, which was Step #1 (The Promise of Love) of the Witch’s plan to burn the Beast’s heart out and make him a Beast forever.

The Promise of Love worked just like the Witch wanted: Beauty married Gaston and the Beast realized his feelings just when it was too late to tell Beauty. That was TSoT.

Since Beauty was still in love with the Beast, Beauty and the Beast still spent a lot of time together. Beauty didn’t live at the castle anymore but did visit. Gaston got jealous of that and tried to kill the Beast (luckily, he came back to life via the power of true love). The Beast realized that Gaston must be working for the Witch, and therefore Beauty was in a lot of danger. But he thought Beauty would be in even more danger knowing Gaston worked for the Witch, so he didn’t tell Beauty everything. That was HLV.

_I have literally only described the episodes._ It’s so much more obvious that **[Jim controls Johnlock and that The Final Problem (Jim’s plan to burn Sherlock’s heart out) is the same thing as Johnlock](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem)** if you think of this story like a fairytale - which it absolutely is.

I think people don’t think of it as a fairytale because it a) has a lot more complex characters than most fairytales, and b) is pretty dark. To that, I say: a) Why are you complaining that your fairytale is well-written? and b) Beauty and the Beast is actually a pretty dark fairytale.

**[We still have The Pain of Loss and The Joy of (False) Redemption](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem)**[in the Witch’s plan.](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem) **[John and Sherlock will literally defeat Jim with True Love’s First Kiss](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem)** ; I couldn’t make this up if I tried. For more detail, follow the [link](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem).

**Author's Note:**

> Transcribed from [my meta blog on tumblr](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/my-sherlock-meta). Much more there.


End file.
